Aibu to ask what you eat when you are broke?

[NCsobroke]

I don’t mean feed your family for £10, I mean dinners like baked potato and beans that cost a couple of quid. None of us are v picky and no dietary issues.

The kids mostly eat a v healthy balanced diet, lots of whole foods and tons of fruit and veg, maybe frozen pizza on a Saturday, don’t really have takeaways often etc. I hate the thought of them living off cheap freezer food not enough fruit snd veg.

Also needs to include lunches as we don’t qualify for FSM despite being on UC as husband works FT.

We are so broke. We usually receive universal credit which we live off as DH wages all go on bills and rent. We won’t receive any at all this month and can’t do anything about it.

2 adults, 2 children. £110 to last for the next 3 weeks (plus toiletries and cleaning stuff and petrol for DH 2 hour commute )

I’m always starving a couple of hours after eating the part baked baguettes/rolls.

mash up a can of sardines (the sort in olive oil) and spread on hot toast.

Cullen skink ( Scottish recipe; nutritious soup made with potatoes, onion, milk, maybe a leek)
tasty way to make one fillet of smoked haddock feed everyone.

Home made hummus.

ham and lentil soup made with a ham hock.

Red soup (the name our kids gave it); made with lentils, onions, a can of tomatoes, a potato, a red pepper.

Wash veg before you trim them; then you can save all the trimmings in the freezer until you've got enough to make soup. Add barley and lentils.

Can you get anyone to send you a voucher for a free Gousto and/or Hello Fresh box? Would get you through 2 weeks worth of decent dinners for nothing and just cancel the subscription after the free box. I'm sure there'll be a referral link somewhere in the budgeting sections on mumsnet!
Obviously this only works if you're a new customer and havent used them before!

Bubble and squeak (cold potatoes and any cooked greens - lots - fried until nice and crisp). You could add an egg or two, or serve with baked beans. Needs lots of salt and pepper.

Root vegetable mix in home-made cheese sauce - anything very cheap and fairly robust ( carrots, celery, swede, parsnips, onions, leeks, potatoes - whatever's on offer ). If no cheese, then extra cooked onion and a spoonful of mustard is good, if you have it. Served with steamed shredded cabbage or greens and/or frozen peas.

Stovies - sliced potatoes, onions and swede cooked very gently and slowly (slow cooker would be ideal) in olive oil or butter, with plenty of salt and pepper. That's the vegetarian option, but the traditional way of making this was to cook the veg with scraps of meat and dripping left over from a roast. Or you could put fat bacon scraps at the bottom of the pan, and then stir them through as the veg were beginning to get soft. Good with any lightly-cooked green veg, for contrasting crunch. And/or with any cheap green herbs stirred in (especially parsley or spring onions reduced for quick sale).

On the subject of dripping and fat and scraps to use of in other dishes, I don't like this but my late mother was very fond of boned breast of lamb, rolled up around a stuffing made of stale breadcrumbs, dried mixed herbs, a little bit of garlic and an egg or a splash of milk, to bind) roasted in a hot oven. Each roll is not very big, so cooks fast.

Best of luck.

Baked potatoes and beans, lots of eggs, boiled, as omelettes, pasta, rice etc with anything random in the freezer or cupboards. Bulk out curries or pasta sauce with mushrooms. Homemade soup with the 50p veg packs from the supermarket. If you can shop daily see what is yellow stickered and work from there. Freeze yellow sticker fish for another day, it can often be pennies. Also the supermarket cooked chicken counters often reduce heavily at the end of the day, it depends on whether you can walk to the supermarket though. I called in Morrison’s at about 6pm last week and picked up a lot of reduced food for only a couple of quid. Local farm shops often sell mushrooms and potatoes in bulk but I find supermarkets cheap for those anyway. 50p for 4 potatoes for example.

Ramen noodles with boiled eggs with spring onion and frozen peas...so yummy

Just by the by, but how much toiletries and cleaning stuff do you actually need as a bare minimum for 3 weeks? That shouldn't impact your budget hardly at all.

When we were broke we lived off bags and bags of cheap pasta. But I'd start with what you have in the house and then meal plan around that. Tinned/frozen stuff is cheaper than fresh and often not less nutritious. Keep meat to a minimum and bulk up with lentils/beans/chickpeas instead. Lots and lots of cheap / in season veg.

Spag bol (500g mince is 1.49 in tesco)
Chilli and rice

Beans on toast.
Always have multipack of your favourite brand in the cupboard, such abundance is rather comforting.

Pimp your beans by loading in a large knob of butter as they heat through, & be generous with the butter in the toast. Butter only, it is an affordable luxury.

Invest in a dried paprika sausage for the store cupboard. Slice/dice to add to heating beans, top a home made pizza or add depth to a stew.

Chicken thighs always. Far cheaper & far more flavour than breast means. Skin on thighs can be roasted or BBQd.

Buy a chicken to roast larger than you need. Strict portion control & stripping the carcass will get you a roast dinner & just about two more meals from shredded meat. Cook bones, skin & grisly stuff in slow cooker for minimum 3 hours for super strength broth.

Get a slow cooker. One off cost, pennies to run & makes a good substantial scoff out of cheap cuts of meat.

Buy an occasional pack of quality streaky bacon, grill a rasher & top piles of beans on toast for a treat. Eek out rest diced/sliced in casseroles.

Big treat dinner is full-on dirty bacon sandwich. Make sure to swipe each slice of bread through the remaining bacon fat. Filthy!

Poach eggs in heating baked beans - easy peasy huevos rancheros.

Stock powder is a good idea. Vegetable stock covers all meals.

Sainsbo does large jars of dried oregano, so useful for anything tomato based.

Bay leaves - cheaper in ethic aisles or shops. Bung a couple of bay leaves in any stew/casserole/sauce as it cooks to give a robust flavour to everyday ingredients.

Lentils - orange lentils bulk out savoury scoff & no need to pre-soak.

Chick peas - pre-cooked in tins etc, store cupboard essentials. If you take a few minutes to rinse well & rub lightly to remove the skins, any hummus or dips will be smoother.

Tinned potatoes well drained, can boost a veggie curry & if dried well roast up quite nicely.

OP there's no shame in using a food bank. Your situation is literally what they're there for.

Also, if you go to Lidl, pretty much everything is good value to start. Pasta, eggs, chicken legs (big box for I think £1.69?) bags of veg, big block of cheese. Their fajita mix is 19p and really good. Chop up chicken, mix with oil and fajita mix and fry, bag of salad around 70p, coleslaw 50p, tortillas (I think £1 or less) and you've got fresh chicken fajitas.

Cheese on toast. Mushrooms on toast. Everything on toast. Buy their big box of eggs, bacon lardons, and mushrooms, for bacon and mushroom omelette. You'll have enough eggs for about 10 omelettes. Even cheaper with cheese and onion. Serve with frozen peas.

Lentils, beans, rice, pasta, potatoes, carrots

OP i am sorry @NCsobroke that things are so tight for you at the moment. I hope things improve soon.

But can I say that some of these suggestions are BRILLIANT! Like wow 👏🤝

Tuna, Mayo, red onions, chilli powder pasta salad.

Pasta with tin tomatoes, red peppers, onion, garlic.

Baked potato with beans/cheese

Veggie curry

Cheese on toast and soup

Pesto sauce and pasta with baby tomatoes

Bean salad and tinned new potatoes

Look at the cheap section in super markets. Veggie meals are cheaper.

Are you able to self refer to a food bank?

Scrambled eggs and toast are great too as it’s filling

I’m shocked at some of the suggestions on here to be honest. Chorizo, Parmesan, ham hock? Ffs what planet do some of you live on? I find the financial privilege and lack of self awareness on mumsnet staggering sometimes. Anyway I digress..

Places like B&M, Poundland and Home Bargains sell branded stuff very cheaply. Likewise Farmfoods and Iceland for frozen ready meals. If you visit all the major supermarkets after 7pm I think it is you’ll find stuff the yellow sticker reduced stuff. Also there’s is an amazing Facebook group called ‘Feed yourself for £1 a day’ which has some great ideas.

When I was skint years ago I used to have spaghetti with a sauce made of tomato purée mixed with water (or passata) and cut-up bacon with some cheese on top.

I actually liked it so much I still eat it regularly now

Do you live near a Sikh temple? They will offer food to anyone regardless of religion.

Oh and tuna pasta - just tuna mixed with some soft cheese and cheddar if you have and stir in to pasta.

I wouldn't even consider jackets that cheap a meal if you do them the proper way in the oven, as an hour and a half or more really drains your gas especially if on a pre-pay meter. I started doing them for 10 minutes in the microwave and then 15-20 minutes in the oven. And dropped from Heinz to supermarket own brand.

Places like B&M, Poundland and Home Bargains sell branded stuff very cheaply

Why buy branded stuff, the discounters are cheaper?

I always go to the market towards closing time, they’ll usually sell you all the leftovers for cheap to stop them packing it back up. Last week I got 4 baking potatoes, 4 sweet potatoes, apricots, broccoli, 4 corn on cobs, 4 punnets of strawberries, apples, blueberries, cauliflower and eight peppers for £5.

Otherwise Olio is pretty good, our local one has food from Waitrose and M&S on it everyday - all completely free.

I make a really tasty bean burger with a tin of chickpeas mashed with a tin of kidney beans. Add an egg, and a spring onion if you have one. Coat in breadcrumbs mixed with a little parmesan if you have it. You could also add some cooked carrot and chilli. Whatever you have on hand.

Pizza cheese on toast is good. Spread a little tomato puree on sliced bread, top with grated cheese and dried basil. Grill until bubbly.

Pancakes with lemon and sugar is a filling tea. We used to have this quite a lot when we were younger.

I stretch mince by adding the same amount of cooked Puy or green/brown lentils. If you used minced lamb and lots of seasoning you can't really taste the difference.

Minestrone soup uses up odd bits of pasta and veg that you have.

If you're cooking bacon, save the fat and use this to cook with. It makes everything taste much better and you won't have to spend as much on butter.

Many others have put great ideas but I'll just add in eggs. Omelette, scrambled, baked, fried. Eggs, chips/waffles and beans/peas/mixed veg was a staple in our house for a while!

Tinned fruit is also a great way to up the five a day cheaply.

OP there's no shame in using a food bank. Your situation is literally what they're there for

I second this. Also (and I know it’s not the point of the thread) but it is absolutely appalling that in modern day Britain our economy is in that bad condition that a family can’t live off one wage. But that’s a rant for another day!

OP, please go and access a food bank.

Do you have a slow cooker? Cheap cuts of meat come out really well, and you can make a lot of stews and curry type things just by chucking in some canned veg and some spices. Chicken thighs are generally quite cheap but really tasty after being slow cooked.